Evidence of meeting #4 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was toyota.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Yaprak Baltacioglu  Deputy Minister, Department of Transport
André Morency  Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
Gerard McDonald  Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport
Kristine Burr  Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Policy Group, Department of Transport
John Forster  Associate Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Canada

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, meeting four.

The orders of the day, pursuant to Standing Order 81(5), are supplementary estimates (C) 2009-2010, votes 1c, 5c, 20c, and 35c under Transport, referred to the committee on Wednesday, March 3, 2010.

Because we are doing estimates, before I introduce our guests, I do have to just say that we are going to call vote 1c, which opens the debate that we're going to have today. By saying that I will now refer to the Honourable John Baird, who is the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Also joining us is the Honourable Rob Merrifield, who is the Minister of State for Transport. And joining us with the ministers we have, from the Department of Transport, Yaprak Baltacioglu, and also John Forster, from Infrastructure Canada. Welcome.

I know that the ministers have opening statements, so I will ask them to make them and we'll get on to questions. I just want to advise the committee that the ministers are here for one hour and the staff are staying beyond that. Because I think there are going to be lots of questions, I'm going to keep the timelines very tight.

Do you know how long your presentation is, Minister?

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Honourable John Baird Conservative John Baird

About ten minutes.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed

Please begin, Minister Baird.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'm very pleased to be joined by my deputy and associate deputy.

I should say at the outset, we have been tremendously well served—the Canadian people and the government—by the hard-working talent at the department, particularly with the economic action plan. They have worked incredibly hard and done an outstanding job.

I want at the outset to start on a non-partisan front, as I always do, Mr. Chair, and compliment the leader of the opposition for his shuffle of his shadow cabinet and the addition of Bonnie Crombie, not only as critic but also as a member of this committee. Welcome.

I have spoken to this committee many times over the past year on the Government of Canada's commitments to Canadians. Specifically, our Government remains committed to stimulating the economy, creating jobs, and supporting Canadian families through Canada's Economic Action Plan.

Since we announced the economic action plan in January 2009, the government has worked closely with provinces, territories, and municipalities to green-light projects and to get work under way. As announced in budget 2010, the Government of Canada has committed to almost 16,000 projects across the country, of which 12,000 have begun or in fact have been completed. Construction is under way in every region of the country. Project managers have told my department that work has begun or is completed on close to 3,250 projects worth over $12.9 billion. As we head into this construction season, these numbers are increasing each and every day.

Members, our funding matches the pace at which funding partners build their infrastructure projects. Provinces and municipalities manage these projects, and we will reimburse costs after claims are submitted. I should note that in many cases work has begun on projects, but the claims haven't been submitted yet. It shows that the municipalities and provinces in question are putting all their efforts into making things happen on the ground. We have been urging our partners to get these bills in as soon as possible. To meet the cashflow needs of the project proponents, we are carrying forward $1.4 billion from the past fiscal year to match the pace of construction of our partners and will reimburse them this fiscal year when we receive their claims.

One of the primary goals of the action plan was to create and protect jobs. Finance Canada indicates that the plan has contributed to the maintenance and creation of over 130,000 jobs since July 2009. It is estimated that about 45% of the jobs created or maintained by January 2010 have been in the manufacturing and construction industries.

Last Wednesday the Conference Board of Canada released its report indicating that if it were not for the boost in infrastructure spending Ontario's economy would have lost an additional 70,000 jobs in 2009, and in 2010, when spending peaks, another 40,000 jobs will be added to the payrolls in the province. That is a report commissioned by the Conference Board of Canada by Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Year one of the Economic Action Plan was two-fold: it introduced new infrastructure funding, and it accelerated existing funding. We introduced the $4 billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, which has resulted in almost 4,000 new projects across the country. Close to 300 of these have been completed. That's improvements to 300 roads, parks and trails, cultural facilities and more that had not been started this time last year.

A thousand more projects will be completed in the coming months. We transferred $699 million to the provinces and territories through the provincial-territorial base funding initiative. For every province that could match the accelerated funding, we have provided it. That's money for highways, for green energy, for public transit, water, waste water, and that has been made available much earlier than expected.

Overall, with the accelerated approval under Building Canada, we have committed nearly $9.6 billion to more than 6,000 projects since the launch of Canada's economic action plan. That means that since January 2009, Infrastructure Canada has committed funding to an average of 16 projects per day, every single day. I'm proud of our achievements in designing, launching, and implementing an infrastructure program faster than has ever been done before.

We couldn't have done it alone. We worked very closely with provinces and territories to make things happen, as well as municipalities in every corner of the country.

With respect to transport, nowhere has our government been more clear about our commitment to safety and security than with respect to air security. For countries like Canada, who take terrorism very seriously, the attack on December 25 was a stark reminder that we must remain vigilant. That's why in the weeks following our government took additional steps to strengthen aviation security. We announced new body screeners and strengthened explosive trace detection capabilities. We announced our intention to develop a passenger behaviour observation program and we introduced measures to meet new U.S. rules for U.S.-bound flights from Canada. And on February 25 we announced an additional $1.5 million over five years for CATSA.

I'll turn it over to my colleague, Rob Merrifield.

March 18th, 2010 / 9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Honourable Rob Merrifield Conservative Rob Merrifield

Thank you very much.

I would just like to add a little on a couple of issues. The first one is CATSA, which is a crown corporation that looks after airport security.

Our government's commitment to airport security is absolutely unequivocal. On December 25 we changed airport security, not only here in Canada, but around the world. The United States implemented very strict restrictions regarding baggage as well as security of passengers. Within the following few days, over 200 flights were cancelled as we tried to react to that incident.

There is no question that the full-body scanners have been very well accepted. We have 14 of them in operation today. The rest, the other 30, will be moved into operation in the next few weeks.

I was just in Mexico City as well as in Japan. The international community, not only in South American countries, but as well in Mexico, is very concerned about signing a unilateral agreement on standards of security. In Japan, with the Asia-Pacific, it's the same thing. I just got back on the weekend.

So the international community is very concerned about this and about making sure that when you get on a plane, it doesn't matter where in the world, you have a standard of security so that the passengers can feel very comfortable that all the security measures have been taken and that they are going to land safely.

Full-body scanners are being very well accepted by the users. I can report that.

I also want to tell you that we are doing something that is very much of concern, not only to Canadians but also to our international communities, on the cargo side of airport security. In this budget, we have added $37.9 million to be able to deal with air cargo screening. This is something we know a considerable amount about because of a terrorist attack we've had in our country, the Air India attack. It certainly will go a long way in addressing some of the concerns we have, not only here in Canada but internationally, as other countries are moving to the same concerns and are trying to address these issues. We will be having state-of-the-art equipment with the additional funds that are being put into airport security.

I'd like to talk a little bit about Marine Atlantic, which is also something we are very concerned about. We want to make sure that umbilical cord--as some people call it--to Newfoundland, that corridor that is so important to Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada, is dealt with in an appropriate way. We have significant problems. Two years ago, the on-time service was 10%. That's totally unacceptable.

Last summer we put on a new vessel, Atlantic Vision. We've been monitoring this vessel's performance over the last year. It is performing reasonably well. Our on-time service this last summer was around 50%. So we have improved considerably.

There is $175 million to renew the fleet and to deal with onshore deficiencies in Budget 2010. Together with the $416 million, that's almost $600 million that, as a government, we've put into Marine Atlantic in the last couple of years. This is no small amount of money. It is very important for them to be able to revitalize their fleet and be able to accomplish what needs to be done, which is to have a service that is respectable for that area of the country. There's another $28 million in the budget to support the other ferry systems in eastern Canada as well.

With that, I think I'll turn it back to my colleague for closing remarks.

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Out of respect for Mr. Volpe, who I know has some questions, I'll be very brief.

I know this committee has done some excellent work with respect to vehicle safety, and particularly on the issue of Toyota's recall. I'm very happy to provide some more details and material to you. I'll leave it with you today. I understand your request is urgent and that you require the most accurate information possible.

The documents in question are the long-form expansion of the Toyota complaints received since the year 2000. This represents about 650 pages. There is a list of e-mails exchanged between Transport Canada and Toyota Canada concerning the recent series of recalls. This represents about 2,500 pages. Some of this material also needs to be reviewed by the Access to Information and Privacy Office regarding personal identifiers and third-party information.

The department has informed me that it will take approximately four days to remove the personal and third-party information from the material provided, after which time it could take at least 20 days to obtain consent from Toyota to release the information.

We are committed to being as transparent and as open with the committee as possible on these issues, and we'll make everything available that you request as quickly as physically can be done, because we appreciate the important work of the committee in this regard.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed

Thank you, Ministers.

Mr. Volpe, for seven minutes.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the ministers for coming.

On the estimates, I note that the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is receiving an additional $9.359 million. In the spirit of non-partisanship, how much of this money is for body scanners and how much of it is to provide security for airport officials against ministers behaving badly?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB

I'll take that.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Oh, do you want to take that one? While you're doing that, would you tell us how many companies bid on those scanners?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB

On the scanners, it's a very specialized piece of equipment. The number of bids was limited because it's a specialized piece of equipment.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Is it two, three, or one?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB

I believe on this one, there's one individual who could meet the standards we're looking for. There are two things that happen.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Is that an American company or a Canadian company?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

Rob Merrifield Conservative Yellowhead, AB

The scanners are not available in Canada. There isn't a Canadian company. An American company bid on it and retained the bid.

But when we announced the scanners, we announced the behaviour observation. We put that out to tender. There were five bids on that. One was successfully bid on here last week. When we have the potential to have competitive bidding on it, we absolutely do that.

I would say the behaviour observation actually has a stronger level of security than the scanner. The scanner is more about user comfort. It has better technology. It has more security. It is certainly something that we've never done before, which is behaviour observation, and we look forward to that bid being completed.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Let me turn to Mr. Baird and his offer on Toyota for a moment.

I'm pleased that you have already acted in respect to your March 3 letter and said you'll give us any and all material. You've now said it's going to maybe take 20 days. It doesn't require 20 days for all of it. Do we have your assurance right now that we're going to get it right away?

You know that I have a motion before the committee on getting all information with respect to all of the complaints that have been lodged with Transport Canada. Are you now committing to complete transparency and accountability on that?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Yes, you have my personal commitment that the department will do every single thing we legally and possibly can to get you all the information that you're requesting as quickly as is humanly possible.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

The only thing that bothers me is this business about introducing the word “legal”. I respect privacy. You're telling me the only thing you're going to redact is the name and address of the complainant.

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

I believe that under the Privacy Act, if there is anything commercially sensitive to which we would be legally required, we'd have to check with Toyota. I'm telling you that I have no problem waiving all of Transport Canada's regard in this to make them available as quickly as possible.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Okay. Are you going to provide this committee with the first quarterly reports regarding floor mats and sticky pedal recalls as well?

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

I think the lists we're tabling today will include the number of complaints received that relate to floor mats and the number of complaints received that relate to the sticky pedal since 2006; the quarterly report from Toyota Canada on the status and resolution of consumer complaints; the conclusion of Transport Canada's investigation into sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles; the comparison of the ratios for the number of investigators to the number of complaints between Canada and the U.S.; the percentage of collisions that have involved vehicle-related deficiencies as contributing factors; and finally, the names of the persons from Toyota Canada that departmental officials dealt with.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

Again, this is good. I note that you've had a change in perspective and attitude towards the recalls. In fact, I hope you weren't misquoted the other day, but I think you said that you were prepared to have the Government of Canada lay charges if you find that Toyota has been criminally liable or if it doesn't comply with the legislation as it is. Are you still of that view?

9:20 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

I should be clear, as a minister of the crown, I can't direct a criminal investigation, nor can I direct the laying of criminal charges.

9:20 a.m.

Liberal

Joe Volpe Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON

But you must have read some of those documents to sufficiently be concerned that it's a possibility that you would like somebody to explore.

9:20 a.m.

Conservative

John Baird Conservative Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Absolutely. Shortly after the committee hearing the other day, I asked my deputy to review the transcripts and to specifically ensure that the department followed up on any and all information.